True Purification: A Danvid Fic

Escape

Warning: long chapter

Daniel looked at the figure with a hint of fear.
He wasn't expecting his dad- Duncan Lindholm- to be here, at this time especially.
He knew that his father wouldn't've come to visit him in the hospital, or pick him up. Daniel was, as cruel as it sounds, completely fine with his father not visiting. His dad was the CEO, owner, leader- whatever you wanted to call it- of the cult. Sure, the lack of familial interaction was a bit down-putting, but he understood the cost of his father conversing with him after his most recent mission failed. He understood that, in the case his father were to bring up said incident, he'd be scolded and likely fired. Or worse.
They were definitely capable of doing worse.
Of course, if they did not find him, they would not be able to fire him and take away his belongings! Except they could freeze his bank account. Point is, hiding from him was clearly the superior option. Daniel nearly forgot his father was there until he cleared his throat. Daniel shook back to reality, erecting his arm to seem more threatening. The face on his father's face was... interesting. There was a wide variety of emotions Daniel couldn't understand why were shown.

"...Daniel, why are you holding a windex bottle?"
Only then did Daniel realize what his "weapon" was, and how ineffective said object was. He puzzled over why the windex as in his sock drawer. It must have fallen in there after the cleaners forgot about it. Daniel contemplated his options of what to do. The mature thing to do here was clearly to discuss what he needed to do in order not to get fired. The logical thing to do was to question his methods of getting in, as well as why he was about before speaking to him (not to mention why at 3 AM.) The smart thing to do would be to interrogate his father about all of the things listed. All said reasons included the action of dropping the bottle and ignoring it. Of course, Daniel did not have the time or patience to get any of this done. Instead, he found himself aiming forward at his father and spritzing aggressively.

It was only luck that let the blue cleaner hit his face.
"OH DANIEL WH- WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT FOR? IT GOT IN MY DAMN EYES-" Daniel's dad yelped, tending to the dampened skin. Daniel grinned for half a second, before quickly slipping past his father and grabbing a dark hoodie he'd left on his countertop. His father was shouting profanities, some at him and some at himself. Daniel raced through the living room, adrenaline seeming to be the only form of energy he could conjure. He could hear his father's heavy footsteps approaching behind him. Daniel was grinning like a madman, ecstasy interfering with his father's commands for him to stop.

"Daniel!! STOP!" His father raspily shouted. "YOU HAVE TO LISTEN!"

But he was too late. Daniel had undone the lock on his door, and ran down the hall of the circular complex. He considered running out of the building to a motel or something, but he was sure he didn't have enough of his stuff to do that. Through his panting, it hit him that he could pretend to run away. He smiled as he slammed open a door to a stairwell- not actually going down it, but making it appear as so- and then running down the hall further. He stopped when he found a fairly hidden nook, then slipped in. As hard as it was, he kept his breath as silent as possible. Of course, his heart didn't agree with the silence, and so began to thump extraordinarily loud. He wanted to shut it up, but of course that wasn't possible (unless he wanted to die, which he did not, in fact, want to.) he listened closely to the hallway. He still heard footsteps, as he heard the door close from him opening it. Then silence. A moment passed. Another went. It felt like years. Then he heard the stairwell door open, as well as echoed steps from the staircase. YES.

Daniel grinned ecstatically, racing back around to his room. Ok, he thought with the wind in his hair. I'm only going to have a few minutes until I have to go, if I predict father's route correctly. So I'll have to make this worth it. Daniel reached his door and burst through, snatching various objects from various shelves and throwing them on his table. He then looted the closet and tossed his property into a duffel bag he found. He packed it with spare clothes (plus one of his favorite light seafoam green polo shirts)- no time to change- and slipped a knife in one pair of socks to protect the blade. Daniel pulled his only piece of black clothing (a slightly oversized hoodie) over his head.